Legal roadblock for streetcar initiative

An effort by two Tacoma residents to put a streetcar system up to a public vote could be doomed before it builds very much steam.

Last month, Committee to Build the Streetcar submitted a citizen petition to the city of Tacoma. Written by long-time streetcar advocates Chris Karnes and Morgan Alexander, the petition calls for funding to come from something called a transportation benefit district. For every $10 spent in this district, .2 cents of sales tax would go to constructing and operating the system.

Currently Tacoma does not have such a district, which is a substantial stumbling block, according to City Attorney Elizabeth Pauli. She briefed Tacoma City Council members on the issue during their Committee of the Whole meeting on March 2.

Pauli has determined the petition goes beyond the scope of private citizens. It assumes such a district exists, when in fact the state will only allow a governing body, in this case the council, to create one. She said she met with the petitioners to approve their form and assign the measure a ballot title. Once that process is official, Committee to Build the Streetcar would have 180 days to gather the required number of signatures to qualify it for the ballot.

Because the initiative assumes an authority the petitioners do not possess, she said she will soon ask the council to give her authority to request a declaratory judgment from a court to make it invalid.

Councilmember Spiro Manthou said he wants to be fair to Alexander and Karnes and not have them putting effort into something the city will have declared invalid.

Pauli responded that both are well aware of her legal opinion.

“This is not a shock to them,” she said. “They know my concern.”

She said there is a possibility that parts of the initiative could be declared valid and parts invalid, but typically courts do not parse a measure in such a manner.

Councilmember David Boe noted that one of the petitioners had given a presentation on the initiative that morning to Cross-District Association and did not mention this legal twist.

Councilmember Lauren Walker lamented the pair did not have their initiative reviewed by an attorney before filing.

“I wish we could have had a conversation with them.”

Karnes, who was not at the committee meeting, acknowledged the council would need to establish the district. If the measure passed at the ballot and the council did not do so, other components of the measure would move forward, such as engineering studies.

He feels Pauli asking for a declaratory judgment would be unprecedented, as legal flaws in initiatives typically are not challenged until after approved by voters.

“What is being threatened is an unnecessary overreaction by the city.”

Mayor Marilyn Strickland noted efforts by the city and Sound Transit to study streetcars and expand the existing light rail system, and how federal government officials may view those in light of the citizen group’s legal quandary.

“There could be a whole slew of unintended consequences,” she remarked.

“I think there is a political solution to this,” Councilmember Ryan Mello commented.

Walker mentioned Seattle, where monorail expansion had initial strong public support but was later killed by voters, and the new mayor strongly opposes the waterfront tunnel that the last mayor championed. Walker does not want the same situation for Tacoma in regards to transportation.

“I want us to come across as a unified front.”

Signature gathering was set to begin on March 5, according to Karnes. He and Alexander attempted multiple times to have an attorney review their initiative but were unsuccessful, he noted. They were aware of the requirement of the council creating the district, “but we did not expect this type of hostile response.”

His appearance at Cross-District Association was not a planned presentation. Karnes said he received an invitation the night before to speak informally to the business group the next morning.

A streetcar feasibility study was done in 2007. Karnes said “the initiative is both a method of gathering support and actually implementing legislation.” They would not have acted if the city had moved forward by now, he noted.

“The only reason it came to initiative process is that the city has not taken the lead on this,” Karnes said. “From the community’s perspective, nothing is happening.”

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